A VERY RELEVANT SURVEY

Terry Christian · Jun 13, 2012

I'm 40. I've always been somewhat interested in photography and artistic in nature, but all I was given as a kid was a pocket 110 and a Polaroid One-Step, neither of which enticed me. Although I got my first digi-snapper in the early 2000s, it wasn't until I had a sort of mid-life crisis in 2008 that I decided to pursue it seriously. I nearly went back to college for it, but the local college bureaucracy was crushing and I figured I could do better by keeping my day job and using the money to buy gear and books. I did just that, my husband helped me to buy a Nikon D80, and I taught myself the basics. I thought I would never have a need to venture into film.

Before long, though, I figured I should give myself an honest college sort of education, and teach myself film and darkroom, which I did in early 2010. I haven't looked back. It was like I was internally daring myself to push further and further. First I taught myself to shoot 35mm and 120. Then came developing B&W. Then came developing color. Then came shooting large format. Then came enlarging and printing! Now I'm hearing the siren's call of alternative processes. I still shoot digital for much of my color work and for instances where I have to land the shot, but shoot film for everything else, including my own personal artistic expression. I find it so much more satisfying. I've dumped the "professional" photo magazines and the gear-based digital magazines, and now subscribe to and read Aperture, American Photo, and other magazines that stress the image instead of wanking over the latest technology.

Klainmeister · Jun 13, 2012

23....became fairly fanatical about the chemical processes in early high school and loved the aesthetic of BW. I think I have a soft spot for nostalgia (I am quite the luddite most the time).

After experimenting with lots of cameras and gear (including some digital), I realized less is more and simplified all of my processes to focus more on the images themselves and now have 1 4x5, two MF, and 3 35mm.

That said, darkroom BW and lith is blast because it's so peaceful and creative. I do believe that alt-processes will survive healthily because of digital negs. Printing PT/PD and other styles with digi negs is great fun and the quality is excellent--all without the need of a giant camera. I think our generation will usher in a few masters of those techniques.

batwister · Jun 13, 2012

Klainmeister said:
After experimenting with lots of cameras and gear (including some digital), I realized less is more and simplified all of my processes to focus more on the images themselves and now have 1 4x5, two MF, and 3 35mm.

6 cameras in three formats - and you call that simplifying? I guess with only two cameras altogether, I'm a simpleton.

...and yes, I'm a little bit bitter.

Klainmeister · Jun 13, 2012

batwister said:
6 cameras in three formats - and you call that simplifying? I guess with only two cameras altogether, I'm a simpleton.

...and yes, I'm a little bit bitter.

Well, yes I think so. Each camera has a very specific purpose too. But really, the simplification came in process more than gear: I stick to 2 films for BW and 1 for color. One developer. Papers change depending on subject. But ya, that's somewhat simple I think....

mooseontheloose · Jun 13, 2012

I'm 38. Been shooting film all my life but only got serious once I moved to Japan back in 1999 and realized I wanted more than what a point and shoot could give me. I got my first SLR in 2001 at a time when the camera stores still sold mostly film cameras, but probably 1/3 to 1/2 the stock was digital. At that time I really didn't consider digital at all, although by the time I left in 2005 virtually everyone I knew had gone that route. After all the work I did in learning to be a photographer with film, the last thing I wanted to do was give that up for another process, especially one that required frequent upgrades and lots of computing power for storage and PS work (I didn't even have a computer back then). Meanwhile, after shooting slides for years, I wanted to do more in black and white so took a course at Ryerson in Toronto and haven't looked back since.

I returned to Japan in 2010 and the biggest shock for me was how little film photography is here compared to before. It's still a lot better than back home though -- I can pick up 35mm and 120 rolls of colour neg, slide, or black and white film in some combination or another at every camera shop in the city (although stock is limited), and get slides developed and returned to me in less than 2 hours. But paper and chemicals for darkroom printing requires trips to larger cities than this one. The older Japanese men who used to be amused at my manual Nikon FE back in the early 2000s (while they shot very high-end sophisticated AF gear, mostly Canon), has turned into a different kind of (mostly nostalgic) amusement for me shooting film (both 35mm and MF) while they shoot with very high-end DSLRs.

I love working in the darkroom, and I love working with different kinds of cameras. Unless supplies (film, paper, chemicals) disappear completely, I think I'll be sticking with film for quite some time.

Plate Voltage · Jun 13, 2012

I guess this is going to be kind of an introductory post: I'm 30, so just old enough to have caught the tail end of the old way of doing things right before everything changed. I had records when I was a kid and in my early teens, used magnetic tape for audio and video material, watched 16mm movies at school, and ran into the whole Betamax/VHS issue borrowing video tapes from friends and grew up shooting film. On the other hand, my brother and sister are just young enough that they never knew life without a multimedia computer connected to the internet as the centre of their lifestyle so between convenience for that kind of lifestyle coupled with the fact that the didn't have to shoot film back when it was the only way to take pictures, the result is they've only ever shot digital cameras.

My first camera was an Argus 110 camera that was replaced by a 35mm Konica point and shoot, followed by a Canon AE-1 Program with 50mm lens as my first camera capable of decent technical quality, so I grew up shooting film and ended up building a whole Canon FD mount infrastructure. I never changed over to digital because the technical quality was either sub-par compared to what the Canon gear produced or the cost of re-equipping for digital with similar quality digital equipment would be backbreakingly expensive and involve several artistic and technical compromises that I'd prefer not to make vs. the ongoing cost of consumables for shooting film.

That covers the capture side of things. The other half I don't like personally is that given the quality of computer screens and projectors, digital presentation is an awful way to look at pictures no matter how good your source material is.

Diapositivo · Jun 13, 2012

I'm 46. Attracted to photography since early childhood. Couldn't believe I could have a camera when I got one for my birthday, should have been 1973, a Kodak Instamatic (126).
Bought my first and so far only digital camera in 2008. I use it mainly when I go abroad.
Never printed anything, not enough suitable place at home. I scan all I produce, which is all colour.
I use almost exclusively slide films since at least 20 years. Develop E-6 since a couple years, thanks to APUG.
I will soon begin developing C-41, I have some 10 films or so waiting in the fridge and a sealed kit waiting in a cupboard.
Never developed anything B&W, never used a B&W film since I was a child.
When I sell my apartment and get a suburban house I plan to install an enlarger and begin exploring: B&W, Medium format, printing (the three things are interconnected in my head, especially MF and printing).
For the moment it's all 135, colour, scanned.
Photography is a hobby to me but in the last years I begun supplying some stock agencies with satisfactory results. Stock photo work is probably what keeps my interest in this hobby constant, you have to really look in the distance.
For the curious, I still produce for stock agencies with film as much as I do with digital. I'm leaving for Vienna in a couple days, and I only bring with me my digital as I normally do when I go abroad.
I definitely prefer the quality that I get from film and I do prefer film out of mere technical reasons.
Fabrizio

batwister · Jun 13, 2012

Klainmeister said:
Well, yes I think so. Each camera has a very specific purpose too. But really, the simplification came in process more than gear: I stick to 2 films for BW and 1 for color. One developer. Papers change depending on subject. But ya, that's somewhat simple I think....

I must say that I find even dabbling with multiple films inhibiting, creatively speaking. There is almost so much choice with digital and film, different formats, black & white and colour that the greatest artistic decision can be choosing something and sticking to it. Though, choice is a privilege at this point of course. Before too long we might all be shooting 35mm Ilford and counting our blessings.

I've certainly found that with some people my own age, starting out with film, there is a mentality of 'try it before it's gone'. If that means more people are shooting the larger formats and potentially keeping the stuff in demand, then great. We're all catching the tail end of a comet in a way, trying to hang on. That is to say, this is the impression I get from younger photographers with fine art sensibilites. Film being the default art media for any photography graduate.

Steve Roberts · Jun 14, 2012

51 (uncomfortably close to 52!)
Dad made a few quid from B/W wedding photography at weekends and took slides of family holidays. Bought my first camera at age 10 - a Halina Paulette for £5 - and was soon developing and printing B/W. Lost the darkroom due to a house move and didn't build another until the next house, so only slides and colour prints for about ten years.
I remember seeing my first digital still camera in 1996 and being told how it gobbled batteries. Fear of being totally dependent on batteries that didn't last long at a time when my Pentax KX batteries lasted longer than most governments struck (and still strikes) fear into me. I just never found anything to excite me about digital photography and saw/see it as buying in to a constant need to replace/update equipment and software on regular basis at considerable expense.
For me, digital photography is like religion, football and yoga - I'll happily leave them to other people.
Steve

Roger Cole · Jun 14, 2012

I like film much better too, but I never understood the worry about battery dependency. Our film cameras are dependent on film, too. So carry enough film. And if you need batteries, carry spare batteries. No brainer there.

Steve Smith · Jun 14, 2012

Plate Voltage said:
I guess this is going to be kind of an introductory post.

You have a great online name - obviously I will have to call you Anode Voltage!

Steve.

Oxleyroad · Jun 14, 2012

43. The first post of someone of my age.

Introduced to developing at a very age of 6 or 7 as my father had processed film and prints as a young adult before moving into the television industry. I used to contact print old family negs on my fathers garage floor. Before I took over the garden shed as a night time darkroom. Bought my first enlarger, Durst M670 colour when I was 13, still have and frequently use it. Cost me 18months of paper boy wages. Bought my first new camera an Olympus XA a year later. Still have this too!

Photgraphy has been my hobby all my life, and taking pictures has been my means of making new material for the darkroom.

I dabbled in digital for 5 years from about 2001 to 2006 before deciding I spend enough time I from of a computer at work, I don't need to spend more time at home in front of one. Lucky enough to have a darkroom with plumbing and running water which I have only had for last 6 years. Prior to this all my water was brought into the darkroom via buckets, and went out the same way.

More recently moving into reversal and processing of cinefilm. Love it.

bsdunek · Jun 14, 2012

73 here. Started photography at age 8, when my Grandfather gave me a Brownie Hawkeye 620 for my birthday. Dad always had a darkroom, so I started learning developing and printing with my first roll of film. I do use digital for some things like web site work, etc. I just don't get a thrill out of sitting in front of my computer playing in Photoshop. I still love all aspects of film, although I can't show my photos moments from the taking.
I suppose film doesn't have much future with me - not more than about 15 years, but all you younger guys keep shooting film.

spatz · Jun 14, 2012

im a sprightly 19. got into photography almost 2 years ago and immediately jumped into film. my father was a wedding photographer in the 70's so he got me on track with developing etc. i like nothing more than working with my hands. i shoot mostly colour slide and slow b&w film. at my age life is pretty hectic so when i do get the opportunity for some shooting i grab some film and get contemplative.

Steve Roberts · Jun 14, 2012

Roger Cole said:
I like film much better too, but I never understood the worry about battery dependency. Our film cameras are dependent on film, too. So carry enough film. And if you need batteries, carry spare batteries. No brainer there.

My worry in that respect stems from the kind of trips I take - next one is ten days in a tent in Snowdonia. My other half has one of those digital jobs made by Nikon and though she follows your "no brainer" approach of copious supplies of batteries, half way into that period even the supposedly wonderful lithium-ion ones are suffering from what I take to be an internal discharge issue. The low temperatures associated with North Wales will undoubtedly not help her batteries, though they will be of benefit to my film reserves!

Steve

benjiboy · Jun 14, 2012

This is another of those "clutching at straws" threads.

Hatchetman · Jun 14, 2012

40. I use lab processing, but I have most of the necessary darkroom equipment, just havent had time to get involved. I have high end digital equipment and lenses, but only use that when I "have" to....for kid's plays, birthday parties, etc.

Robert Hall · Jun 14, 2012

I'm 50, I have shot film for 46 years. (it runs in the family). I show a lot of color in my younger years but it never really turned me on. Came back to Black and White in the early 90's and it's been my main form of artistic expression since. I have used digital, but it simply doesn't have the overall feel I need.

emjo · Jun 14, 2012

49. Started with 135 mm film (obviously) in early 1980's. Mainly "vacation shots" until 5-6 years ago when I went digital (350D). Learned a lot with that! Now mix film and digital. Love old folders from 1930's/1950's and medium format as well large format. Love the CLA of old shutters and stuff. Do B/W and colour at home. Scan negatives for computer use. Occasionally let a lab print some large pictures. Always on the learning curve...

kb3lms · Jun 14, 2012

50. Started with a pocket tele-instamatic in 1976 and then graduated to a K-1000 in 1978. Did the college newspaper and all that sort of stuff. Have a freezer full of way-to-much film and have processed my own everything since the early 1980s. Lately have amassed a bunch of gear - wouldn't quite call it a collection. Digital is fine but just like film better. Printing about 50% analog and 50% scanned and inkjet - goes back and forth depending what my free time looks like.

Will be very sad if and when color negative film goes away. Still have the K-1000 and use it weekly. No idea what happened to the pocket instamatic.

Thomas Bertilsson · Jun 14, 2012

pbromaghin · Jun 14, 2012

55. My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic for Christmas in 1964. I never really did much photography as a youth - I grew up in a poor rural area where acceptable male activities generally involved gasoline, gunpowder, alcohol, some kind of ball, risk of injury, or killing something. We had a short-lived camera club my senior year and we got to spend a whole 2 nights in the darkroom at a nearby college. A Pentax ME Super was the first luxury purchase my wife and I made with my first job out of college. We used it for family snapshots for years and never gave much thought to learning about photography. Then, around 1998 I became the unofficial photographer for our daughter's gymnastics team, using lab scans to create really bad 8x10 inkjets for the other parents. In '04 I had a consulting gig in San Francisco and wondered why my photos looked so bad compared to others I'd seen of that oh-so-photogenic city. That's when the bug hit, really hard. I eventually got disgusted with the digital half of the hybrid process and decided to take control from start to finish. That meant switching to B&W; getting an old, fully manual, MF folder; and pursuing a darkroom of my own. The darkroom doesn't exist yet, but the equipment is there in the basement, waiting.

pstake · Jun 14, 2012

benjiboy said:
This is another of those "clutching at straws" threads.

What does this mean, Ben?

I get the feeling you're referring a to a previous thread that I missed.

Roger Cole · Jun 14, 2012

Steve Smith said:
You have a great online name - obviously I will have to call you Anode Voltage!

Steve.

If I had to grade that post I'd give it a B+

And is he part of a tube or a valve?

benjiboy · Jun 15, 2012

pstake said:
What does this mean, Ben?

I get the feeling you're referring a to a previous thread that I missed.

It means that the original poster is afraid and seeking reassurance of the continuity of the future of film and processing and the continuing interest of upcoming generations in it.

A VERY RELEVANT SURVEY

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